Knowledge and attitude of healthcare workers about middle east respiratory syndrome in multispecialty hospitals of qassim, Saudi Arabia (BMC Public Health)

Background: With the increase in prevalence of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), healthcare workers (HCWs) are at risk of acquiring and subsequently transmitting this lethal virus. In view of this, HCWs were evaluated for their knowledge of and attitude towards MERS in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross sectional study was performed in two hospitals of Qassim region in Saudi Arabia. A total of 280 healthcare workers were selected to participate in this study. Knowledge and attitude were assessed by using self-administered and pretested questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were carried out to express participants` demographic information, mean knowledge score and mean attitude score of HCWs. Inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis tests, p < 0.05) were used to examine differences between study variables. Chi squares tests were used to assess the association between study variables and attitude questions. Spearman`s rho correlation was used to identify the association between the knowledge, attitude scores.Result: Participants demonstrated good knowledge and positive attitude towards MERS. The mean scores of knowledge and attitude were 9.45 +/- 1.69 (based on 13 knowledge questions) and 1.82 +/- 0.72 (based on 7 attitude questions). The correlation between knowledge and attitude was significant (correlation coefficient: 0.12; P